Kristin Waugh-Hempel has been working at The Metropolitan Regional Career & Technical Center (the Met) since 1998. After serving as an advisor for four years, she focused her energy on the school’s Learning Through Interests (LTI) program and now serves as its director, overseeing the LTI process for all six Providence, Rhode Island Met schools and, through the Big Picture
How Can Essential Schools Approach State and District Policies? 1. Course Requirements Identifying specific courses that high schools must offer. Approach: An Essential school could incorporate a required course (such as U.S. History) into an interdisciplinary offering (such as 11th grade Humanities). 2. Textbook Selection Requiring that state- or district-selected textbooks be used by schools. Approach: An Essential school could
How much attention should you pay to test scores? “A test score alone offers too little information to make meaning of it,” says Paul LeMahieu of the University of Delaware, who also directs research and development for Delaware’s education department and has written extensively about the purposes and techniques of different forms of assessment. Before rushing to actions aimed at
When parents get to leaf through the test items by which their children are sorted and ranked against each other- or when they sit down and endure an hour or two of taking the actual tests their children take-many are struck by how ambiguous the questions are, and how trivial and arbitrary as a summary of learning. What follows is
The public schools of Zuni, New Mexico provide a striking example of Essential School principles adapted to a particular community’s needs and vision. When he first launched his native Zuni tribe on school change ten years ago, superintendent Hayes Lewis broke with a larger district to carve out an autonomous K-12 district for this reservation of 9,200. In a series
Walk into any one of the classrooms at the Academy of Citizenship and Empowerment at the Tyee Educational Complex and you will see students writing intensely. You will hear them discussing their ideas with passion, and you will feel the electricity of students using their minds well. Yet, only three years ago, these same classrooms were part of what was
As students prepare for graduation at Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a high school of 450 students in an East Harlem neighborhood in New York City, they work intensively to prepare a portfolio of their work that will reveal their competence and performance in fourteen curricular areas. This portfolio will be evaluated by a graduation committee composed of teachers
At Boston’s Fenway Middle College High School, students learn early to assess all work against the “percs” habits of mind, which (like Central Park East Secondary School’s oft-quoted standard) considers how the work demonstrates Perspective, Evidence, Relevance, Connection, and Supposition. In their culminating exhibitions of Senior Projects and work internships, seniors defend their work before an audience that assesses it
Start talking with middle school parents about shaping high school goals, so everybody has time to think through and become comfortable with Essential School ideas. The class entering 6th grade in 1993-94 will graduate from high school in 2000 — a realistic target year. Use plain language, not fuzzy or misleading slogans, to describe the changes you have in mind.
“Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills, misery, ignorance, and violence. Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the
Whether they are Re:Learning schools or not, Pennsylvania schools this year received the first unambiguous message that new principles now underlie what the state expects from a public education. The State Board of Education circulated in September a 100-page document that redefines state curriculum and assessment regulations; after extensive public discussion and revision, it will take effect. Gone are the
California’s Center for School Restructuring is working on an “accountability, learning, and support” system to help the state’s demonstration schools that have received special funding for restructuring. The long-range goals of the demonstration schools and districts are to “provide powerful learning outcomes for all students” and to invent “an authentic system of accountability.” To help schools give an honest accounting
By Richard Rothstein (Economic Policy Insitute, 210 pp., $17.95) BUY NOW! reviewed by Jill Davidson Many of us in the CES network, accustomed to focusing intently on what schools can do, create educational environments that support all children to learn, grow, and thrive. At the same time, we know that schools nationwide have not been able to close the “achievement
At schools that align with the Common Principles, there’s often a palpable sense of high expectations, personalization, and the purpose of school as a place for students to use their minds well. As the co-director and longtime school coach at the Michigan Coalition of Essential Schools (MCES), I have witnessed what it takes for schools to develop those qualities. This
Focus groups of citizens in the Croton-Harmon, New York School District met with trained market-research professionals to answer these questions, each of which was explored further using the prompts that follow: What would you expect a graduate of our public schools to know and be able to do? What evidence would you accept that he or she has achieved those
Talking with a lay audience about whether different kinds of student assessments are credible and useful, Kate Jamentz of the Western Assessment Collaborative at WestEd likes to use this little test-taking fiction: Crash Gordon has been enrolled in Fly-by-Nite Pilot School for three weeks. The school promises that by successfully completing this course, Crash will be ready to pilot 747
How do you recognize a good school? Test scores tell us something, but not enough. We need instead an array of evidence that students are-or are not-learning the things that matter. And the public must join school people to understand and weigh that evidence, then plan together how to improve the work of our students. A FEW MORE HARD-WON triumphs
Those interested in what effects state curriculum standards and testing can have on student learning might study the history of the New York State Regents examination system, a long-standing example of a state-mandated curriculum and testing program. Though it is now undergoing a major revision toward a more performance-oriented model, the Regents system for years dictated a wide range of
Half our life is spent on internal accountability-talking about whether this or that piece of student work is good enough,” says Paul Schwarz, co-principal of Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS) in New York City. “But because we gave up using standardized tests and the accumulation of Carnegie units in favor of exhibitions and portfolios as a way to graduate
Deborah Meier began her teaching career as a kindergarten and Head Start teacher in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City. She was the founder and teacher-director of a network of highly successful public elementary schools in East Harlem. In 1985, she opened Central Park East Secondary School, one of the founding members of the Coalition of Essential Schools. She was
Eagle Rock School, located in Estes Park, Colorado, is two schools in one: a school for high school age students and a professional development center for adults, particularly educators. Year-round, residential and full-scholarship for high school students, Eagle Rock enrolls young people ages 15-17 from around the United States in an innovative, nationally recognized learning program. With a capacity of
Two teachers are working on integrating the government and earth science instruction at their high school, linking environmental concerns to their political ramifications. The principal has scheduled their classes back to back, and they are planning to meet the two groups together. But state regulations forbid the earth science teacher from doing so, because she is not certified to teach
Schools in the Small Schools Incubator, sponsored by Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, Oakland Community Organizations and the Oakland Unified School District, use these guidelines as touchstones throughout the proposal and planning processes. Simple structures work best: a cohort of students, a team of teachers with full responsibility for student learning within a block of time and/or over a
You can’t start too early involving the community in Essential School change, experience shows. Only by joining the dialogue about tough problems will all parites begin to take part in their solution. The Conyers, Georgia Board of education was in a state of siege. The district’s new Salem High School had opened in a cloud of glory, its commitment to
As schools change, states can either help or hinder thier efforts. In California and New Mexico, New York and Pennsylvania, far-sighted policy makers are setting up structures that encourage bold steps in curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Sooner or later, when schools begin to change in the fundamental ways advocated by the coalition of essential schools, they will run up against